For Old Times' Sake
by Lavender Gaia
Summary: After a tragedy in her life, Shampoo has a late night visitor. A short and sweet one-shot.


Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½. And I didn't get it for my birthday. *grumbles*

    The man stood outside the Cat Café, watching the woman inside as she moved to clean the tables. It was just after closing time, but he knew she hadn't yet locked the door. He had never paid attention to the closed sign before, and didn't proceed to do so now. "Cat Café closed," said the pretty waitress, smoothing her Chinese outfit without looking up. "Come back tomorrow."

   He cleared his voice. "Hello, Shampoo." She spun around at the familiar sound of his voice. He sat down at a clean table and patted a chair next to him. She ignored it and continued cleaning up.

    "Why you here?" She demanded, scrubbing the surface of a table furiously, shocked to see him coming to her after so long.

    "I heard that Cologne died. I wanted to come give you my condolences." He chuckled. "She treated me like crap, but she was a good woman. I liked her."

    "Great Grandmother very good woman. Shampoo miss her." She sighed and stared at him. "What you want?"

    "Is it a crime that I came to see you? To see how you were doing?" She took some of the dirty bowls to the kitchen, though she could still here him. "Is it wrong to come say how much I miss you?"

    "Not Shampoo fault you leave." She said haughtily as she marched back to finish cleaning. He chuckled. Her Japanese hadn't gotten any better than when he had last seen her. "You have her, why you need Shampoo? Can no have both."

    "I left her, Shampoo. Because I wanted to come back to you." He could see her sigh, as she went back into the kitchen without a word. He could see that she had changed a lot. She was still her old self, but with a touch more maturity and humility. She was still drop-dead gorgeous though. 

    She didn't say anything. They hadn't really spoken since Akane's wedding. Shampoo had not been informed of that one, so the two had gotten married without a hitch. When he came to tell her he was sorry, she had thrown things at him, yelling so loud that they could probably hear her back in her village. So he had left and they hadn't spoken since. So now, here he was, in her restaurant, telling her that he had left the woman he was with to be with her.  

    She was kind of surprised, to say the least. 

    "You left Shampoo. You made choice." She walked past him to the door. "Now you leave." But before she could open the door, he pulled her towards him. She looked over his Chinese robes and blue eyes and dark hair. 

    "Shampoo....." He hugged her close and she didn't struggle. "I love you. I really do. I'm sorry about leaving and I'm sorry about her."

    She broke away and went into the kitchen. "Shampoo said leave. No need you." She put a bucket under the sink facet and started filling it with cold water. 

    "I know you're hurting from what happened and your grandmother dying but I can help! I really can! I can work in the restaurant and make you feel better." He sighed. "I-I can stay here and love you."

   She put the full bucket on the counter and glared at the man in front of her, though he could tell she was beginning to break down. "C'mon, Shampoo! I've loved you for a long time! Even when I was with her, you were the only thing on my mind!" 

    She just turned away from him and pointed to the front door. 

    He sighed, then spotted the bucket of water and grinned. "For old times sakes?" He asked. She looked at the bucket, smirked, then picked it up and emptied its contents. 

    On the floor was a white duck, quacking wildly as he flew out of his long robes. She laughed, long and loud, for the first time in a long time as she watched the duck do a little happy dance on the floor. Shampoo began to fill a kettle of water and put it on the stove, still smiling. The duck flew up and rubbed his feathery head against her cheek. She grabbed him out of the air and cuddled him to her bosom. He began honking loudly till she silenced him with a kiss on the head. 

    "My stupid Mousse."

Owari.

A/N: I'm not sure how I came up with this, but I thought it was cute and I hadn't written anything for a while so I thought I'd jot this down. It's really hard to type without and enter key though. Oh well. ^_^

Questions, comments, reactions and reviews are greatly appreciated. 


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